The details of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision will be parsed and debated for months, probably years. The votes and motives of individual justices, especially the apparent swing vote of Chief Justice John Roberts, will be the favorite subject of talk shows and pundits for weeks. But the bottom line today is this: The essential provisions of the Affordable Care Act stand, and the United States will be healthier for it.

The 2010 health care law is expected to bring coverage to about 30 million uninsured people; roughly 9 in 10 eligible Americans will be covered. Young adults will be able to stay on their parents' insurance up to age 26. Insurers won't be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, nor will they be able to deny coverage to children with health problems. Limits on how much policies will pay out to each person over a lifetime have been eliminated. Improved Medicare prescription benefits will reduce health care costs for older Americans. And co-payments for preventive care for all ages have been eliminated.

Despite the claims by detractors that the law will break the national bank, insuring most Americans should, over time, help reduce the cost of health care as people are seen by primary care physicians instead of in expensive emergency rooms and as people are treated before their conditions worsen.

The public finally began to understand what the law contained—and what they would lose if it disappeared. They don’t want anyone taking away free preventive care, including mammograms. They don’t want to lose the opportunity to start their own business and be able to buy their own health coverage without an employer.

Americans should remember what is at stake going forward—when they vote. The public is already hearing from politicians promising to “repeal” the law and “do what the Court would not do.” That is a promise to reinstitute a system where Americans lose their health insurance when they lose a job or get sick. It is a promise to maintain a system that leaves millions of us uninsured.

Though the health reform law may need some tweaking, promises to repeal it should be met with resistance from all the Americans who will benefit from its protections and opportunities.

… [No] longer will the United States remain just about the only advanced country lacking universal coverage. No longer will the worst aspects of our often outstanding health care system work against us, bankrupting some unfortunate people who are badly hurt or fall seriously ill.

No longer will children in families that make too much to qualify for existing Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance go uncovered in the face of unaffordable medical costs. No longer will “pre-existing” ills disqualify people from coverage. No longer will those who lose or change their jobs—and employer-provided health insurance—be left out in the cold. Real, tangible benefits will reach tens of millions more Americans.

The highly polarized debate about the constitutionality of "Obamacare" was so overwrought that it obscured what the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act actually does. Far from being a government takeover of health care, as its critics claim, the measure seeks to improve the current system while leaving private insurers, doctors and hospitals largely intact. Its three main, interdependent goals are to significantly reduce the number of Americans who have no health insurance, promote higher-quality care and find ways to slow the growth of health care costs.